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Those days, people wrote from their heart. Now a days there’s to many rules – some of it I still don’t understand. Where did these rules came from? Who made them up? And . . . who say’s “they” are right? (Just asking)

Well, in a sense she did by writing letters to her publisher friend who criticized her and did not champion her publication. She would have sat on the back row, maybe protested with one or two questions, and then never come back. There are writers who can be helped by writing seminars, but Emily was so far ahead of her time, she invents Imagist style long before Pound imports it from Oriental poetry. And though she read extensively, her new style was invented all alone in her house 70 years before Imagism was created by all the smart poets in Europe. Some teachers like to boast about rigorously criticizing young, budding writers like the critic Mr. Girabaldi. But we must remember that there are people like Emily, who close completely after a few sentences of patronizing criticism, and withdraw into their solitude, still writing, but only in private. It is only because of a few relatives that we have her work. Think of all the other Dickinsons whose works were never found or published, or who died because they could not fit in or find a retreat from the world. Spinsterhood allowed her to become a poet. If she had married, she would never have had the freedom or time to write. If she had been a man, she would have been expected to pursue a career. It is sad to think of her almost alone in her house, but then again it protected her enough to allow her to be an American master.